Friday 27 / December / 2024
Jaipur: Against the backdrop of an IAF official falling prey to a honey trap, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar on Saturday said all precautions are being taken to prevent such incidents which have so far been confined to the lower level.
"I do not think that such things (espionage) are at high level. Few things came to light but they were at lower level and we have taken all precautions (to prevent them)," he told reporters here.
"Things like honey trap are generally avoided when we are alert. We should be alert all the time.We take care of it at the time of recruitment and training. There are also clear guidelines and code of conduct (for personnel) to deal with social networking sites," he said.
Recently, a 30-year old IAF official Ranjith KK was dismissed from service and arrested for allegedly passing on official secrets to a suspected intelligence operative.
According to Delhi Police crime branch, the official had been compromised after falling prey to a honey trap set up by the suspected operative, Damini McNought, who posed as a journalist on Facebook.
Parrikar was speaking at the CISF ground near Amber to inaugurate an Army recruitment rally where he also interacted with the candidates before flagging off the rally. Large number of candidates attended the open rally for which registrations were done online.
"We started the procedure of online application for the recruitment rally. It was feared that the number of candidates might drop but the number of candidates has gone up instead," he said.
"Indian youth is patriotic and has nationalistic mindset and therefore willing to join the Army," he said.
Union Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore and senior officers of the Army were present on the occasion.
Meanwhile, a manufacturing unit in defence sector is likely to be set up in north Indian state of Rajasthan which would be located between Jaipur and Delhi, Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar said here on Saturday.
"There is no manufacturing unit in defence sector in Rajasthan and at least one such unit should be set up in the state. We are considering setting up of a unit to manufacture helicopter or fighter plane's parts or something like that,"
Parrikar told reporters here.
He said that since the state shares border with Pakistan, the unit would be set up far from the border and close to Delhi though location has not been finalised yet.
"I had spoken to chief minister about it. There is land available with the state and the location of the unit will be decided later," he said.
The defence minister while choosing to evade saying anything related with Pathankot attack said that the air bases have been asked to do security audit and to block any points, if any, from where security can be breached.
"First security audit is to be done by base commander and the second security audit will be done next month by special unit," he said at a media interaction here.
About the One Rank One Pension scheme, Parrikarr said that tabulation work was going on and must complete within this month.
Prior to the media interaction, he visited BJP state headquarters here and addressed the party workers in the presence of the state party president Ashok Parnami and other senior leaders.
During the visit, the defence minister, also collected views from people for the union budget.
"I am collecting people's views which is very important and helpful in preparing budget because some of the the inputs which come are very useful and clinching," he said.
